Our websites may use cookies to personalize and enhance your experience. By continuing without changing your cookie settings, you agree to this collection. For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice.

Connecting the Dots: Aboriginal Art Tied to Land, Religion

Three decades ago, governmental policies of self-determination began to encourage the Aboriginal people of Central Australia to reclaim their indigenous cultural identity, which had long been eroded through colonization and forced sedentarization.

Examples of the paintings and sculpture that resulted are featured in an exhibit now on display at the William Benton Museum of Art.

“Dotted Dialogues: Contemporary Indigenous Art from Central Australia” comprises acrylic paintings and sculpture highlighted by colorful dotted patterns based on the iconography of the Aboriginal culture. The exhibition was curated by students in an anthropology class taught last spring by Francoise Dussart.

“All this artwork is grounded in ancestral religious stories,” says Dussart, professor of anthropology. “The intent of the artist is to use those stories and their skills as artists to dialogue with non-indigenous people and show they had not lost their culture despite colonization and they still knew about their culture and the land.”

While art has often been inspired by religion in Western civilization, the art of Aboriginal culture inspired by religion is also linked to specific land.

“The religious dimension is about identity,” Dussart says. “Religion is tethered to the land, and you are tethered to both. Unlike Christianity, it cannot be exported. This cannot be owned by anybody else than those people who inherit the rights to those particular stories on those specific sites.”

Dussart had the idea of creating a class that combined her expertise in both anthropology and curatorial work, an idea that was supported by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean Jeremy Teitelbaum and Nancy Stula, executive director of the William Benton Museum of Art. Aboriginal art in central Australia is “very abstract” but also very symmetrical, in part because the designs that represent the land and other objects are also used as body art, says Dussart, who began her career in anthropology at the Sorbonne in Paris and earned her doctoral degree from the Australian National University conducting fieldwork with the Warlpiri people in the Tanami Desert. She has since focused on curating the paintings created by the Central Desert Aborigines.

The 14 students in her class “Anthropological Perspectives in Art” came from various different majors, including psychology and neurobiology. Only one was an anthropology major.

“The students brought their own disciplinary expertise,” says Dussart. “They brought their own ideas. The first half of the class involved looking at theories of art through an anthropological perspective and figuring out how to apply them.”

Ancestral Water Dreaming at Puyurru and Mikanji 2014, by Rosie Nangala Flemming; Ancestral Water Dreaming at Puyumu 2014, by Shorty Jangla Robertson; and Ancestral Water Dreaming at Walkupa 2014, by Christine Nakamarra Curtis, all acrylic on canvas. (Courtesy of the Benton Museum)

Dussart says even though the current generation of students is versed in a social media world of 140-character messages, her students found it difficult to restrict their writing to the 50 words allowed for the labels adjacent to the art and the 200 word-limit for the exhibition’s introductory wall panels.

“They wanted to tell everything they had learned,” she says.
The majority of works on display are from Dussart’s personal collection of Aboriginal art, with the remainder on loan from art dealer Peter Tillou of Litchfield, Conn.Three students in the class developed a floor plan for the exhibition, which is displayed in the center room of the Benton Museum’s main galleries, by moving the artwork around the space until they settled on a final location for each piece. The paintings depict dreams tied to religion, as well as designs resembling aerial maps. The sculptures include goannas, a large lizard that is found in Australia.

Join us for a talk by Gina Barreca,2018 UCONN BOARD OF TRUSTEESDISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

All great works of fiction, poetry and dramaâas well as texts forming mythologies, religions, national epics to heroic sagasâhave loneliness at the heart of their narrative. From Persephone to Peter Pan, from âFrankensteinâ to âFrozen,â the stories we pass along are saturated with unwilling isolation.âOnly around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions,â according to a 2017 study. A former U.S. Surgeon General argues that âWe live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s.â We need more than social media. We need social contact. We need community. How can we break through the loneliness barrier? Being alone when in need of companionship is more than sad; itâs an epidemic.Chronic loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. We need to change our national story and, often, our personal ones as well.Even the concept of the âlone wolfâ is a myth. Wolves hunt in packs.

Reception to follow.

For more information about this event, or if you are an individual who requires special accommodation to participate, please contact the CLAS Deanâs Office at (860) 486-2713.

A liberal arts and sciences degree prepares students with the tools they need to excel across a wide range of careers. Given the number of options available to you, it can be overwhelming to narrow down career choices. Attending CLAS Career Night will provide you exposure to career opportunities for CLAS students.

This semesterâs focus will be on research-based careers. During this event you will engage with CLAS alumni, learn about various occupations, and gain insight about how to best prepare for your future career.

The McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research invite you to join us for a brown bag research seminar.

Birds, Bacteria, and Bioinformatics: Why Evolutionary Biology is the Best

Sarah Hird, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

This series is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, and is designed especially for students conducting (or interested in conducting) STEM research. These seminars are opportunities to learn about research being pursued around campus, to talk with faculty about their path into research, and to ask questions about getting involved in research.

About CLAS

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the academic core of learning and research at UConn. We are committed to the full spectrum of academics across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. We give students a liberal arts and sciences education that empowers them with broad knowledge, transferable skills, and an ability to think critically about important issues across a variety of disciplines.